A Port St. Lucie, Florida, man was convicted by a federal jury today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida of ten counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false income tax returns and three counts of filing false income tax returns announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2012 through 2015, Richard Maurival prepared income tax returns for clients that claimed false education credits and false business expenses, and other deductions to inflate by thousands of dollars refunds paid by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to filing fraudulent income tax returns for his clients, Maurival falsified his own income tax returns, by not fully reporting the fees he earned in his tax preparation business for tax years 2012, 2013, and 2014.

U.S. District Judge James Ivan Cohn for the Southern District of Florida set sentencing for January 17, 2019. The defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 3 years in prison on each count, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Orshan commended special agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, who investigated the case, and Tax Division Trial Attorney Grace Albinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Acosta, who prosecuted the case.